Nadal next for streaking Querrey

NEW YORK -- Everything is going Sam Querrey's way these days. The American made it onto the national broadcast yesterday, which he loved; he miraculously fixed his cell phone after dropping it in the toilet; and he advanced to the fourth round of a major tournament for the first time in his promising young career.

Now, if he can carry his recent good fortune into his next match, it would be a boon for American tennis, not to mention an upset for the ages. Querrey, who surprised No. 14 Ivo Karlovic, 7-6 (5), 7-6, 6-2, yesterday, moves on to play the best tennis player in the world, Rafael Nadal.

For Querrey to avoid getting flushed away in his next appearance on network television, he must employ a simple strategy to enhance his strengths.

"Grip it and rip it," the big-serving Californian said.

But grip has been a bit of a problem here for Querrey. After his first-round victory over against No. 22 Tomas Berdych, the butter-fingered Querrey dropped his cell phone in the toilet. He's not the first, but still. So he went out and bought a new one, but also managed to fix the old one.

Don't try this at home unless you are a professional tennis player, but Querrey put a blow-dryer on the phone for what he said was "like five hours," and somehow it came back to life. Now he has two cell phones, although he's likely going to junk the other one.

Querrey and his lighthearted frankness make for a refreshing addition to the tennis world, where so many of the top players are reticent to share such amusing details about their lives, or admit how much they enjoy making it onto the network coverage, even in a joking manner.

When told his match against the gigantic-serving Karlovic made it onto CBS, Querrey smiled.

"All right, good," he deadpanned. "That's pretty important to me. I like the TV time, you know."

Perhaps the key to Querrey's apparent grounding comes from his entrance into the professional tennis world. Although he was good, he wasn't ever a tennis prodigy. No demanding parents shipped him off to a tennis academy at age 12, and he didn't sign up with an international management company at age 9.

Querrey grew up in Thousand Oaks, Calif., and did what most American kids did once upon a time, he played sports, and lots of them -- football, basketball, baseball, soccer, golf and tennis; and he actually went to a regular high school, where he actually played on the team for three years.

"I played on the high school team freshman, sophomore and junior year. Went to high school and did my thing and practiced at the club up the street from my house. Took lessons and went to the Tuesday/Thursday clinics.

"Seemed to work for me," he said. "A lot of people, they might need to go to a tennis academy and play for six hours a day. Everyone's different."

In his senior year, he signed a letter of intent to go to USC but changed his mind in June of 2006 and went pro instead. Two months later he was in a tiebreaker in the first set against Nadal on the hard courts in Cincinnati. He would eventually win that set, but lose the match, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-3.

At the time Querrey was ranked 178th in the world, but two years later he's already moved more up more than 100 spots with some impressive performances this summer. He won an ATP tournament in Las Vegas in March, then beat No. 14 Carlos Moya at Monte Carlo, and didn't lose until he faced No. 3 Novak Djokovic.

Now he goes into today's match with Nadal ranked No. 55 in the world, although he was as high as No. 38 this summer until a recent slump heading into the Open.

"A lot of things change in these two years," Nadal said. "He didn't play a lot in that moment. So right now, he's a very good player. With big potential and big serves and having results. Going to be a very tough match, no? I know I have to play well if I want to win."

That match in 2006 was the only time the two have met on the court, but Nadal knows that while he will be on the receiving end of Querrey's huge serve, the young American will be on the receiving end of the cheers.

"I understand perfectly the crowd support for Sam," Nadal said. "He's from the United States, and for that reason the crowd is going to be with him. But I think it's going to be with him, not against me."

Turning that support into a victory will be extremely challenging for Querrey, but he knows the odds he's facing.

"My real goal now is to end the year in the top 32," he said. "I'd love to be seeded at the Australian Open next year to start the year."